Hunter PvP Glyphs

WoW Hunter PvP Glyphs

Note: WoWHead seems to be experiencing technical difficulties at the moment, so no tootltips for you! Sorry… 🙁

Using the right glyphs is a pretty important part of the hunter pvp formula. Here is what I recommend for level 80 hunters:

Essential Hunter PvP Glyphs

The following glyphs are a key component to any hunter PvP build.

Glyph of Aimed Shot – This glyph reduces our Aimed Shot cooldown by 20%, which is huge. Apart from Kill Shot, Aimed Shot is our #1 shot in PvP. The 2 second cushion (i.e., reduced cooldown) that this glyph provides helps us to maintain the healing debuff uptime.

It also gives us 2 seconds quicker access to one of our insta-cast shots – another huge plus.

Glyph of Disengage – Disengage is a key tactical move for positioning and one of our primary escape abilities. Having access to Disengage every 20 seconds, as opposed to 25, is a tremendous advantage. Survival hunters have it even better… with this glyph and 2/2 Survival Tactics, SV hunters can pop Disengage every 16 seconds. Now that’s what I call slippery!

Read more

Hunter Basics: Explosive Shot

Explosive Shot

Explosive Shot is the signature ability of the survival tree. However, I often find that many hunters are unaware of how and when to properly use it, especially in the event of a Lock and Load proc.

Until Kill Shot becomes available (once the kill target is at or below 20% health), Explosive Shot is the number one priority shot. In other words, its cast should not be delayed for anything. Many players have the wrong impression, thinking that Black Arrow and/or Serpent Sting should be applied first in order to further buff the shot. This is incorrect. Delaying Explosive Shot for any shot besides Kill Shot results in a DPS loss.

Read more

My Survival Guide to Surviving in PvP as a Survival Hunter: Part Two

Welcome to part two of my Survival Hunter PvP guide. The purpose of this two part post is to offer up some basic tips and suggestions for those new to Survival Huntering, a quick-start-guide if you will. After a lengthy career as primarily a BM PvP Hunter, I’ve made the transition to Survival pretty easily, and I’m here to help you do so as well.

In part one I covered my talent build, pet choice & pet spec, glyphs, enchants and gear itemization. The purpose of that post was to offer a brief overview of the spec and to help better optimize your toon for success in BGs or arena.

In part two, my goal is to provide you with a few tips and pointers on getting the most out of your new build and play style. This post will not be an all encompassing guide on “How to Own as a Survival Hunter”, but more of a primer to get you up and running. In this part of the guide, I’ll give you an overview of the basic PvP shot selection, Survival Hunter mechanics, as well as show you some useful addons and macros.

Read more

My Survival Guide to Surviving in PvP as a Survival Hunter: Part One

Say that five times fast…

I’ve specced Survival for PvP in the past, but never for very long. However, once BM was laid to rest last week, I decided to jump ship and become an explosives expert. Since there may be other displaced BM PvPers like myself, I figured I’d provide a glimpse at my spec, as well as share some of what little knowledge I possess concerning Survival Huntering in the realm of player versus player combat. 😉

Keep in mind that I’m not an elite PvPer. I’m decent and I’m competitive, but I am in no way an authority on hardcore Hunter PvP. I usually do pretty well in both BGs and arena, but I am always out looking for ways to step my game up. Although I’m feeling a lot smoother with it this go ’round, I’ve never remained Survival for more than a few weeks. If anyone has any advice or constructive criticism pertaining to this post, macro suggestions, tactics, and especially arena strategies, then please share.

Well let’s get started…

Read more

Recent Hunter Changes On The PTR

If you haven’t been keeping up on what’s going on over on the PTR, well don’t worry ’cause I got your back. Here’s a summary of the most recent undocumented changes to Hunters: Marksmanship Viper Sting now Stings the target, draining 4% mana over 8 sec (up to a maximum of 8% of the caster’s maximum mana), and energizing the …

Read more